After 6 months, drivers ignoring cellphone ban [WA]

Seattle Times ^ | 1/02/2009 | Bob Young

[sionnsar]

Cindy Baker-Williams held a "Hang Up and Drive" banner over Aurora Avenue North in Fremont when Washington's handheld cellphone ban for drivers began on the first of July.

She and her family hoped the new law would change drivers' behavior.

It did at first. "The initial trend we saw was less people talking," said Baker-Williams.

Then cellphone use started creeping back up, said Sgt. Freddy Williams of the State Patrol, who has carried on his own informal off-duty study of driving-and-talking.

He can't think of another law that's been flouted quite like this one. "I've seen people walk out of their house and before they put their car in gear, they're talking on the cellphone," he said.

...

The public appears to support a tougher law. A statewide poll by Pemco Insurance in June, just before the new law took effect, showed 60 percent of Washington drivers wanted to make a handheld cellphone ban a primary offense.

But Douglass knows state lawmakers took seven years to move the current law from initial proposal to passage. And it took 16 years for the state's seat-belt law, implemented as a secondary offense in 1986, to become a primary offense in 2002.

...

[sionnsar]

What the article does not say is that when the initial seat-belt law was passed we were PROMISED that it would NEVER become a primary offense.

[sionnsar]

Say WA? Evergreen State ping

FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this ping list.

Ping sionnsar if you see a Washington state related thread.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

I recall that PROMISE clearly as well.

[Texas Federalist]

People need to start minding their own damn business more often.

[JennysCool]

Stupid, trendy laws make a laughing stock of the real, necessary ones.

[bmwcyle]

They vote and steal to get liberals and then they won’t follow their lead. Wouldn’t be better to vote in conservatives?

[freedumb2003]

Stupid, trendy laws make a laughing stock of the real, necessary ones.

Driving while on the cell phone is as dangerous as driving while drunk.

You have to wonder whose sill little call is more important than your life.

[bicyclerepair]

Well they can’t make it a 2-hand mandatory on the wheel because I for one drive a stick with only one hand on wheel and other on gear lever. It’s not easy to use a cell phone in a manual trans. car hehehe.

[SkyDancer]

Just like the lottery - we were promised that it would go for schools. Now it all goes to the general fund .....

[goldstategop]

Liberals want to tell people what to do - like they're children - and there's a backlash. A law like that cannot really be enforced.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

“Well they can’t make it a 2-hand mandatory on the wheel because I for one drive a stick with only one hand on wheel and other on gear lever. It’s not easy to use a cell phone in a manual trans. car hehehe.”

Then I guess The State in its Infinite Wisdom will have to mandate paddle-shifted transmissions in all vehicles. If they go this route, I hope The State mandates that I drive a 430 Modena with the F1 gearbox. :)

[omega4179]

Whats up Lib?

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Driving while on the cell phone is as dangerous as driving while drunk.

The thing is, these laws don't seem to apply to hands-free phones in cars. The danger doesn't come primarily from having one hand off the steering wheel - it comes from drivers not paying attention to driving because they're talking on the phone.

[BillT]

What percentage of all travel auto mileage results in an accident and what percentage were using a cell phone at the time.

I imagine that the percentage is very very low.

This is just another rights infringement to punish everyone for the stupidy of a very few.

This makes no sense to me.

[meyer]

Driving while on the cell phone is as dangerous as driving while drunk.

I like to grab a couple of "40's" and drink them on the way home from work after the night shift. Usually, I can hold the beer between my legs while I text.

[Boiling Pots]

Is there evidence for such a claim?

Is listening to the radio, or eating as deadly too?

[ExtremeUnction]

Stupid, trendy laws make a laughing stock of the real, necessary ones.

In California most people get around the law by turning on the phone's speaker. Then you can hold it up to talk and place it back in your lap when you're listening. I was doing this the other day and a cop looked right at me and didn't see a thing. Face it..this law and other silly laws such as a ban on texting while driving are almost unenforceable.

[llevrok]

This is yet another failure of a nanny state (like ours) to amend personal behavior that is really driven by class issues.

"Wealthy" people have phones and cars. Less affluent people take the bus.

[the_devils_advocate_666]

You've got to have skill!

[JennysCool]

Freedom is messy.

The reason freedom is fast disappearing in America is that seemingly every potentially dangerous human behavior now has a law passed against it. Or will have.

As Franklin said, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” He was right as usual.